DULUTH — Two weeks ago, Minnesota Duluth sat second in the WCHA and was in a position to host an NCAA tournament quarterfinal game in March following a first round bye.
Four straight losses later, the Bulldogs are fourth in their league. If the season ended today, UMD would be on the road for the NCAA tournament, having to play a first round game to get back to the quarterfinals.
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To avoid a fifth and sixth consecutive loss, the Bulldogs must beat the undisputed No. 1 team in the country, Wisconsin, in a WCHA series this weekend at Amsoil Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
UMD was swept by the Badgers back in October in Madison by a combined score of 12-4, but shots were only 60-57 in favor of Wisconsin.
“From our last series with Wisconsin, we just needed to bury our opportunities,” UMD fifth-year senior center and captain Clara Van Wieren said. “We actually had a lot of shots on net against them.
“We did well off the rush against them last time, we had a power play goal, as well. Continue to capitalize in those ways, but bury more opportunities.”
UMD’s remaining eight-game regular season schedule makes it challenging for it to move up in both the Pairwise rankings — the system used to select at-large teams and seed the NCAA tournament — and WCHA standings.
It also presents opportunities.
This weekend’s series against the WCHA-leading Badgers are two of four games UMD has against teams it went 0-4 against in the first half. The other team is Minnesota, which hosts the Bulldogs on Feb. 21-22 in Minneapolis. The other four games are against teams — Minnesota State and Bemidji State — that UMD is 3-0-1 against thus far.
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Wins over the Badgers and Gophers could move UMD back into position for a first-round NCAA tournament bye — top five in Pairwise — or back into a home-ice situation in the top four.
Meanwhile, losses to the Mavericks and Beavers could open the door for No. 7 Penn State or No. 8 St. Lawrence to jump UMD, potentially putting UMD on the NCAA tournament bubble.
"The narrative we're putting out right now and that we're fully believing in is this is our path," Van Wieren said. "This is our journey. It doesn't matter what's in the past. It doesn't matter. It's not going to be perfect. It's our path, our path to the national championship. We're focused on moving forward and accepting the past. We're loving every step of the journey even though sometimes we have to step down."
Bracketology
Wisconsin regional
1. Wisconsin*
9. Northeastern vs. 8. St. Lawrence
Colgate regional
5. Cornell at 4. Colgate*
Ohio State regional
2. Ohio State
10. Boston University* vs. 7. Penn State*
Minnesota Regional
3. Minnesota
11. Sacred Heart* vs. 6. Minnesota Duluth
* denotes conference leader and potential automatic bid
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Overheard at Amsoil
Schuler had no excuses for last week’s losses at St. Thomas. The games were the Bulldogs' third and fourth games in eight days after losing two games at home to Ohio State. UMD had numerous players fighting a flu bug during the series against the Buckeyes.
The combination of a quick turnaround from a Friday-Saturday series to a Thursday-Friday one — all while recovering from the flu — wasn’t why UMD lost. The Bulldogs didn’t play structured and got away from their game, Schuler said.
“It’s a lesson learned for us,” UMD coach Laura Schuler said. “We’ve got to make sure when we go into games that we’re focused and ready to play the type of hockey that we’re used to playing. Credit to them. They came out hard and played us really hard.”
UMD and St. Cloud State are on pace for a third-straight postseason meeting. UMD has hosted SCSU in a No. 4 vs. 5 series the previous two seasons. The Bulldogs are 10 points ahead of the fifth-place Huskies, and UMD owns the tiebreaker. Minnesota and Ohio State are 10 points ahead of UMD. If everything holds, the Bulldogs would finish fourth in the WCHA for the fourth-straight season and seventh time in eight seasons.
The Badgers failed to win for just the third time on Sunday. Wisconsin comes to Duluth off a 2-2 overtime home tie and shootout loss to St. Cloud State in Madison. The first-place Badgers are 25-1-2 overall, 19-1-2 in the WCHA and 15 points clear of Minnesota and OSU for the regular season title.
The Badgers really do lead the nation in everything right now. In addition to being the top team in the WCHA standings, national polls and Pairwise rankings, Wisconsin leads the nation in goals scored (5.6 per game), goals allowed (1.1), scoring margin (4.46), power play 40.3%) and faceoff percentage (60.3%), among others.
“They are fast and very skilled,” Schuler said. “Our defensive game is going to be really important, our reloads in the offensive zone is going to be really important. We got to stay above them. At the same time, we got to make sure we capitalize when we turn pucks over and look to attack quickly.”
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The Trust Project
